Kenya Nabbed Age-cheating In The U-17 AFCON Qualifiers In Tanzania

Kenya has been caught age-cheating by CAF in the U-17 AFCON qualifiers for Central-East Zone set to start on Saturday in Tanzania with three players affected.

Kenya, however, is not alone as the hosts Tanzania (2 players), Uganda (3 players), Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Sudan, each one player, have also been nabbed.

All the affected players have been disqualified from the competition that ends on 26 August.

Only Djibouti and Ethiopia have been found compliant in terms of ages of their players.

Players taking part in the region-based qualifiers must have been born on or before 1 January 2002.

The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has written to the Confederation of African Football asking for a review of their Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) results sent by CECAFA, the regional body staging the qualifiers.

According to Fkf they conducted their own independent scans that showed that all their players were within the required age cut.

“We wish to inform that we, as a federation, conducted an independent MRI for all the players before allowing them to join camp and all the players passed the MRI test.

We have records of the same including the MRI CD and a consultant radiologist report confirming that the said players did not have the total fusion of the epiphyseal piate plate which means they were all at stage 5.

“We therefore request for a review of the same and our CAF medical doctor, Dr. Wyliffe Makanga is in Dar Es Salaam and can provide all the information needed,” FKF letter to CAF reads.

In 2016 CAF disqualified Kenya from the U-20 AFCON qualifiers for fielding three ineligible players against Sudan.

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